Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1179, 23 November 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1871.

Notwithstanding the enormous amount of Government in proportion to population borne by the Colony of New Zealand, it is a fact that the Colony is not efficiently or satisfactorily .governed. The machinery is cumbersome and complicated, as well as costly, and in consequence is accompanied by altogether too much friction. The state of affairs was aptly described by the hon. Mr Waterhouse in his address to the Legislative Council on taking office as representative of the Ministry there. He said the Colony had not been governed, but suffered to drift. A similar remark was made by the same hon. gentleman in the early part of the session. He said the Colony was drifting away rather than being governed. The fact is, that the whole system is capable of great simplification. The .Constitution of New Zealand is intend ; ed to be an imitation of that of Great Britain, which consists of three distinct parts— the Crown, the Lords, and the Commons. Yet even there it may be iairly assumed that a change of some kind is imminent. It is representative rather of a state of things that has passed away than of present circumstances, but which state of things never .existed and never can exist in this .Colony. Jt may be asserted that in this Colony at any rate the Upper Chamber is only obstructive, and that so far as the machinery of government works at all smoothly it is when it is not retarded by the interference of that house. Its supposed use is to act as a check to the too rapid progress of the elected Chamber, but ye believe that (obstructives sufficient 10 hold the fast members under control will always find their way to the benches of that house. Of the other branch of our Government —the Governor—it appears that he is rather an ornamental appendage £han an essential to the good government of the Colony. It has been shewn that he is, in fact, a mere cypher or shadow, to fulfil or confirm the acts of his advisers, —"a political umbra without which the country would not suffer, and |p?m which it can gain but little good."

He is, however, an expensive appendAge, and the best that can be mid for his office is that it does not materially retard the work of government. The time is doubtless approaching when a change of some kind will be made. It is, in fact, already proposed that the Upper House shall be made elective instead of being nominated, as at present. We fail to see the utility of the proposed change. Its use would s,tiU be to obstruct the progress of the other honse, and when we reflect on the time spent in legislation and the little good work to show for it,~the number of useful measures destroyed in the attempt to bring them into existence, or indefinitely postponed,—we think it high time that some of the stumblingblocks should be removed. We believe that a single elective Chamber, with a Ministry also elective and responsible to the people, is all the Government w r e require, and that some suoh simple and inexpensive form must ultimately take the place of the present cumbersome and costly system.